9/3 Weekly creativity contest winner & new prompt

by Miranda on September 3, 2008

Sunflowers are blooming everywhere — and there’s quite a harvest right here at Creative Construction. Our winner for this week’s creativity contest is Kelly Warren, who had a sunflower art session with her daughters. Love the initiative, Kelly! She writes: “My girls and I had an art afternoon yesterday around the sunflowers prompt, and we had so much fun! We found the little wooden sunflowers on the clearance aisle at Michael’s, and then just pulled everything together with supplies I had at home. I created mine and taught the girls each step, step by step, as I was creating. We started with some old discarded wood and covered our wood with maps (as inspired by Elizabeth Beck!). Then we painted water colors over our maps: I chose blue, Sarah chose pink, and Livvie chose purple. Then we selected the papers we wanted to use for the grass, stems, and leaves and started cutting and gluing layer upon layer. The toughest part for them was giving the piece time to dry between layers. I’m not sure who’s prouder of their finished products, me or them!”

From Jen Johnson, a lovely pair of photos. Jen writes: “I’m actually able to submit something this time around — how exciting! We grew sunflowers in our garden this year, and it’s getting to be harvest time, so I have two photographs for you: ‘Sunflower/Son Flower I’ and ‘Sunflower/Son Flower II’.”

From Juliet Bell, an original piece of wood art: “I happened to be in the midst of making this sunflower puzzle to auction on eBay, so I was delighted to see sunflowers as the new prompt! This is a double-sided, stained, wooden, hanging, jigsaw puzzle with 131 pieces, measuring 10″ by 6’5″.”

Cathy Coley sent her photo/double haiku entry in right away, shortly after it was posted last Wednesday, noting: “Inspired now, before my real ones fade completely in this rainless haze.”

Sunflowers
bright hope in the clouds
of August – harvest’s fine
tribute of glory

From me (Miranda), a photograph and haiku pairing. I shot the sunflower bouquet that my husband gave me for our anniversary last week. It’s hard to tell, but the lighting is simply an overhead incandescent can light. No playing in Photoshop — I’m pleased with how it came out.

Ink Icon
The sunflower on
my shoulder never wilts or
sheds its soft petals

This week’s prompt: “My favorite shoes”

Use the prompt however you like — literally, a cue for color, or a tangential theme. All media are welcome. Please e-mail your entries to creativereality@live.com by 8:00 p.m. eastern time on Tuesday, September 9. The winning entry receives a $10 gift certificate to amazon.com. Writers should include their submission directly in the body text of their e-mail. Visual artists and photographers should attach an image of their work as a jpeg. Enter as often as you like; multiple submissions for a single prompt are welcome. There is no limit to how many times you can win the weekly contest, either. (You do not have to be a contributor to this blog in order to enter. All are invited to participate.) Remember, the point here is to stimulate your output, not to create a masterpiece. Keep the bar low and see what happens. Dusting off work you created previously is OK too. For more info, read the original contest blog post.

Kelly, I LOVE those sunflowers! I trust they will hang on a wall somewhere. Looking back, I greatly regret I didn’t do more of that sort of thing in my home when I had young people coming and going. Those are the memories that stay. So – congratulations to you three!

Wow, cool! Thanks so much! My girls will be so thrilled they won! They have been showing their pieces to anyone who will look. We had to take them to school this morning to show their teachers. 🙂

And look at all these entries! I’ve never grown sunflowers so kudos to you Cathy and Jen on those big ole stalks! Love your titles too, Jen; very clever. Gorgeous photo Amy, and your puzzle blows my mind Juliet. How the heck to you do THAT? And Miranda, your haiku is one of the sweetest I’ve ever heard and that photo is lovely. Sometimes Photoshop simply cannot improve on Mother Nature. 😉

Hi guys — thanks for all the nice comments. I was taken out by a hideous stomach virus for the past 24 hours — lost an entire day of work, which was supposed to have been used for finishing up a client project. Back on my feet today, sort of, but still feel run over. Thank God my sitter was here yesterday — kept the baby and just brought him to me for food. What’s worse than the dehydration of a stomach bug? Nursing with a stomach bug…

oh, miranda, so sorry. thanks for still plugging away at this website! i know it’s another thing to worry yourself about with client deadlines looming and sick on top of it! if you can dare, give yourself another day of rest for your health.

welcome!

Great to see you! Studio Mothers is the blog community of Miranda Hersey Creativity Coaching. Writer? Artist? Musician? Performer? You’re in the right place. While we primarily focus on the issues that creative mothers encounter, all are welcome.

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